STAR WARS, chapter by chapter - 1. Opening logos & 2. A New Hope

mandibil (68)in #starwars • 8 years ago (edited)

This is a bit of a tester for you Star Wars fans out there. I am thinking of doing a complete rundown of all the 50 chapters of the original Star Wars movie from 1977 (aka. "Episode IV : A New Hope). If you like this idea, please let me know in the comments below and upvote to keep the spirit up.. thanks ;-)

The opening sequence follows the commonly used order(1), except points where directors, cast and crew is presented.

Studio (20th Century Fox)
Production company (Lucasfilm Limited)
"A long time ago ..."
Title
Crawl

It was a very controversial decision by Lucas to omit cast etc. from opening credits completely. He felt it would detract the feel of the direct plunge into this new world by having text placed in it (2). Personally I find this to be a brave decision, because it is one of the aspects that sets Star Wars aside from other movies. It has become a part of the experience.

The American Directors guild were not happy about it but let it slip for this movie. When he did the same thing for “The Empire Strikes Back”, they fined him with more than 250.000 dollars. Soon after he left the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild and the Motion Picture Association in disappointment (2).

1. Opening logos

The 20th century Fox logo

It is the classic logo designed by Emil Kosa Jr. in 1933, that and have stayed the same more or less ever since. The one sub type used, was from the “slanted 0” period ca. 1953-1987. It is the widescreen version, with the stamped registered trademark on the lower right arch, just to the left of the right sky-light, which first appeared around 1976. The fanfare was composed by Alfred Newman (3) and extends to the end of the “Lucasfilm” logo.

Lucasfilm Logo

This is the original version of the logo that was used on all the three original versions Star Wars (ep.IV-VI) and the first two Indiana Jones movies, before they changed it around 1988. The striking green color is the same (as far as I can judge) used for credits in his debut movie “THX 1138”. I love this simple but striking title much better than the later sparkly Lucasfilm Ltd. Logo. It is simple but still kind of alien.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ….

I have not found any information about the ideas behind using this intro to the movie before the Title card. Again a very simple sans serif font is used and presented statically in silence (maybe a small nudge to 2001: A space odyssey), which is suddenly broken as the movie theme and title card is introduced simultaneously a few moments later.

Right of the bat, the director tells the viewer that this is a fantasy. It is out of time and out of place – in the sense that you should expect to see things that are not of our time and of this world. A modern version of “Once upon a time …”

2. A New Hope

The "new hope" refers to the content of the crawl text, that refers to the recently stolen plans of the death star. The title would also be used as a subtitle for the entire movie for repremieres, after the next episodes had been made. The chapters refer to the descriptions in the DVD issue, but I do not know if the chapters were named at that point or earlier.

”Star Wars” title card.

With an astonishingly powerful opening of the main theme of the score, simultaneously the title card appears and starts to fade away into the screen. It starts out filling more than the screen size (at least on the 35 mm version, presented in 16:9 ratio used here) and then disappears more or less straight into space becoming smaller and smaller. Before it eventually disappears, the crawl text starts (this was changed in later versions when the title fade was sped up to accommodate the added subtitle (Episode IV: A NEW HOPE”).

Different versions of the STAR WARS logo were prepared before the premiere of the movie and used for various posters and promotion etc. before settling on this one.

The crawl

The design of the "crawl" (as it is known), was a deliberate choice of Lucas´made to emulate the old Flash Gordon films of the thirties, that he was himself so fond of. I am sure he also felt that the tilted, but straight angle into the star field, was an added bonus that gave it a certain 3D effect that enhanced the notion of floating in space and feeling the grandeur of it all. A great way to prepare the viewer in a quick and effective way. The crawl-style has now become synonymous with Star Wars.

The original crawl text was as follows :

It is a period of civil war.
Rebel spaceships, striking
from a hidden base, have
won their first victory
against the evil Galactic
Empire.

During the battle, rebel
spies managed to steal
secret plans to the Empire's
ultimate weapon, the
DEATH STAR, an armored space
station with enough
power to destroy an entire
planet.

Pursued by the Empire's
sinister agents, Princess
Leia races home aboard her
starship, custodian of the
stolen plans that can save
her people and restore
freedom to the galaxy....

Later versions were slightly edited. The word “rebel” in the second block was changed to have capital “Rebel” as is the case in the first block. Another point is, that each of the first two blocks ends on a single word in the last line. This is considered a typographical “error” in the aesthetic category and should be avoided. This was also edited in later versions.

Concerning writing the crawl text George Lucas remembers: “The crawl is such a hard thing because you have to be careful that you're not using too many words that people don't understand. It's like a poem”. He showed the early drafts to his friend Brian De Palma who commented: "George, you're out of your mind! Let me sit down and write this for you". De Palma helped to edit the text into the form used in the film. (6)

Concerning the filming of the crawls for all the first three movies, Ken Ralston had this to say during production of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi:

"One of the things we still have to shoot is the opening crawl. Shooting that crawl is actually one of the hardest things on these shows. The artwork itself is only about four feet long and maybe a foot wide. The camera is real low to the ground and we use a tilting lens to eliminate a lot of the focus problems. But everything has to be lined up just perfectly and you spend days running through tests. Every little blemish shows up. Any little bump, any little movement of the camera is going to screw up this big 2,000-frame-long take. It's fun, but pure torture." (4).

1 - Opening Logos
2 - A New Hope
3 - Imperial Boarding Party
4 - Artoo's Mission
5 - Vader Confronts the Princess
6 - Lost in the Desert
7 - Land of Jawas
8 - Droids for Sale
9 - In the Garage
10 - Lars Family Dinner
11 - Binary Sunset
12 - Attack of the Sand People
13 - Meeting Old Ben
14 - "Your Father's Lightsaber"
15 - Leia's Message
16 - The Death Star
17 - Torched Homestead
18 - Luke's Decision
19 - Mos Eisley Spaceport
20 - The Cantina
21 - Han Solo
22 - Cornered by Greedo
23 - Death Star Destination
24 - Jabba the Hutt
25 - The Millennium Falcon
26 - Alderaan's Fate
27 - Lightsaber Training
28 - "That's No Moon..."
29 - Secret Compartment
30 - Planning the Escape
31 - Wookie Prisoner
32 - Rescuing the Princess
33 - Into the Garbage Chute
34 - The Trash Compactor
35 - The Walls Close In
36 - Deactivating the Tractor Beam
37 - Back to the Ship
38 - Obi-Wan Vs. Vader
39 - Tie Fighter Attack
40 - "They Let Us Go"
41 - Arrival on Yavin 4
42 - Rebel Briefing
43 - Han's Departure
44 - Luke and Biggs
45 - Assault on the Death Star
46 - Trench Runs
47 - "Use the Force, Luke"
48 - A Hero's Welcome
49 - Medal Ceremony
50 - End Credits